TORONTO | Ilya Samsonov does not have his tongue in his pocket. He calls things by their proper name. The 26-year-old goaltender, who was present in the Maple Leafs locker room after that 7-3 loss to the Lightning in the first game of the first round, gave a very honest assessment of his performance.
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“I was crap,” Samsonov said. But I will be better. I found it sad to see the fans leave after the second period.
In his first playoff start for the Leafs, the former Capitals goalie allowed six goals in 29 shots. Sheldon Keefe pulled Samsonov after the second period to replace him with Joseph Woll.
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“I was nervous in that game, we were chasing each other,” said Keefe. I thought Sammy [Samsonov] fought the puck early in the game. But nervousness doesn’t explain why we didn’t defend the front of our net well.”
When asked if he would juggle the possibility of picking Woll in Game 2, Keefe didn’t open up about his game.
“It’s too early to talk about it,” he replied.
The Lightning scored four of their six goals against Samsonov on the power play. The masked man was not the only one to blame for this setback. Really not.
A dangerous move
Michael Bunting also prevented a possible comeback late in the second half with his header check against defender Erik Cernak. He received a five-minute major penalty and a kick.
“I don’t have much to say about the referee’s decision,” Keefe said. For me, Bunting wanted to win his fight against Cernak for the puck. He hit her.”
At Lightning Camp, Jon Cooper didn’t have the same version.
“This shot hits a lot of criteria,” said the Lightning head coach.
On several boxes, Cooper was referring to a head-to-head contact and likely a player jumping to reach his rival.
NHL officials could re-examine that bodycheck and issue Bunting a suspension.
In the third period, Calle Jarnkrok replaced Bunting on the left of Auston Matthews and Mitchell Marner. Jarnkrok scored his third goal from assists from Marner and Matthews.
Hope for Hedman
The Lightning ended this game with three players in the infirmary: Victor Hedman, Cernak, and Michael Eyssimont. Of the three, Hedman would undoubtedly be the greatest loss.
However, Cooper said he hopes to see him in uniform for the second game.